There's something magical that happens to Chicago in the summertime. After a long, cold, winter, it comes as no surprise that everyone wants to be outdoors, including the city's dance artists. These professional dancers spend a majority of their careers training and rehearsing in the studio and performing in concert and theater venues, with few opportunities outside of site-specific work to experience dancing outdoors. But thankfully, for the past ten summers, Dance in the Parks has given dancers and audiences alike the opportunity to consume concert dance in some of the cities most communal centers - Chicago's neighborhood parks. Dance
In the beginning of any career, we often make sacrifices. Sometimes this means late, unpaid nights in the office or putting in extra work at home, but what happens when these sacrifices become the norm? For many dancers in any stage of their career, the extra hours in the studio and unpaid rehearsals and performances come as no surprise. The justifications for putting up with these circumstances range from "I need to prove myself" to "This is the best opportunity I have." While those things may be true in the beginning, many dancers will continue to tell themselves these lines
As a current or potential audience member, you may catch a review of the show in the local paper. But one there is one thing about a review that you will never be able to skirt around; those words in that newspaper did not come from the mouth and heart of the artist or creator. That's where DancerMusic comes in. We pride ourselves in giving artists like Reesie Davis, Founder and CEO of Praize Productions, Inc. NFP, the opportunity to share reflections and discoveries of the work that she, her company and school of dancers work so hard to achieve and realize. We recently caught up with Reesie and asked her to share her reflections on PPI's recent production of REVIVAL: The Answer was Healing! Here's what Reesie shared with us in her 4PHOTOS:
Let's paint a picture of Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre's Inside/Out: Ameican Catracho. In the foreground of the picture is Cerqua Rivera's performance on Wednesday, June 20th at 7pm, at Evanston's beautiful new dance and music venue Studio5. There Artistic Director Wilfredo Rivera, CRDT Co-founder Joe Cerqua, and other participants in the creative process will offer a look into the making of American Catracho, the large-scale work that Rivera launched in 2016, and which will be completed this year. American Catracho explores the experience of immigrants and refugees who, like Rivera himself, venture to leave what they know to find a new life in a new land. It's been a major, three year project for the Company, and although there's a lot in the foreground, there's even more in the background. Taken all together, it turns the whole picture into a kind of magic painting, because each time you look closely at what is in the background, what you see in the foreground will change. Knowing that, we asked Noelle Kayser to give us even more background on the process of making American Catracho, and here's what she told us.
If you recall our PRE-View of Hyde Park School of Dance's Amira: A Chicago Cinderella Story, then you may remember HPSD Artistic Director August Tye mention that the Prince's journey to find his princess, Amira, leads him on a search through some iconic neighborhoods on Chicago's south side. The dancers' balletic movement and gestures are the main vein for storytelling, but what completes this scenic journey are the projections and illustrations Tye has created in collaboration with photographer Damien Thompson and illustrator Sara Petrolis. DancerMusic got an exclusive sneak peek at the images to be used in Amira, and asked Damien Thompson to tell us more about the process of creating these powerful images and what role they play in bringing Amira to life. Take a journey through Chicago's south side as you learn what Damien told us:
Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater can fill a stage with excitement like few other dance companies can. In their stated purpose to 'preserve, promote, and present' the many Dance and Music traditions of Spain -- Flamenco, Folkloric, Classical, and Contemporary-- they've developed a unique history, a unique repertory, and a unique choreographic voice. They'll be presenting their Flamenco Passion: A Tribute to Jose Greco’s 100th Anniversary at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts (on Friday and Saturday, June 15-16 at 7:30pm, and again on Sunday, June 17 at 3pm), and the program is an especially important and exciting one. DancerMusic asked Ensemble Español Artistic Director Irma Suárez Ruiz and Executive Director Jorge Pérez to share with us a little more about what we'll see at The North Shore Center, and here's what they told us:
It's time to introduce a new princess into the world. She cannot shoot icicles out of her fingers nor is she as famed as Sleeping Beauty, but one thing will be certain the moment you meet her: you will feel like you have already met. It may be because this new character is a fresh iteration of a princess we already know and love, Cinderella. But the more likely cause of your familiarity is that this princess, like so many of us in the city of Chicago and in our country, is an immigrant. In this day and age, we
First impressions are important . There's no denying it, especially when you are debuting a brand new dance company in a city that has an abundance of them. There are many ways to make a great first impression, but often, the best way to do so is to stay true to who you are and to step into the light with a kind and open heart. This is exactly what Founder and Artistic Director of South Chicago Dance Theatre, Kia Smith did. This past May, Smith curated SCDT's first evening-length performance at University of Chicago's Mandel Hall. What may not
If you had just happened to walk in on one of Chicago Human Rhythm Project's annual STOMPING GROUNDS performances, that would have been amazing enough. STOMPING GROUNDS is a series of concerts that Chicago Human Rhythm Project has presented across the city of Chicago for the past four years, and it's not like anything else. Chicago Human Rhythm Project brings together a real all-star lineup of percussive dance companies, and to see the bright, energetic, irrestible enthusiasm of percussive dance in so many different forms, from so many different artists, steeped in the heritage of so many cultures, well that wouldn't just be amazing, that's more like a waterfall of amazing experiences, moment after cascading moment. But the Grand Finale of STOMPING GROUNDS promises to be all of that and more. There was so much that we wanted to learn about all of the dimensions of this multifaceted event that we asked Lane Alexander, Founder and Director of Chicago Human Rhythm Project, to give us a little more insight into STOMPING GROUNDS. Here's what he told us:
Some of mankind’s greatest discoveries were accidental. If it weren’t for these happy accidents, we would be missing everyday items such as super glue and (god forbid, especially if you’re a college student) the microwave. But we should also remember that accidents can pave the way for artists, including the dancers at Simantikos Dance Chicago. Founder and Artistic Director Haley McElwee did not start with the intention of creating a dance company, but in the three years since its founding, the company has experienced growth that has taken them from area rug-sized performance spaces to artistic collaborations in Italy. DancerMusic’s Kristi Licera recently caught up with Haley to get a peek into Simantikos’ upcoming performance at. Here’s what Haley told us: